


Further On Up The Road

by handyhunter



Category: Preacher
Genre: yuletreat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-24
Updated: 2009-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-05 06:09:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/38577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/handyhunter/pseuds/handyhunter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A gen-ish version of an OT3 between Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy, set after the series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Further On Up The Road

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Karabair (likeadeuce)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/likeadeuce/gifts).



In retrospect, riding through the desert on a horse, when they had a perfectly good truck sitting empty on top of an overpass, was perhaps not the most practical thing they could have done. It sure was romantic, though. No one but him and Tulip - well, and Skeeter, of course, and the horse whose name Jesse didn't quite catch - and the endless sky and miles of land around them. The horse's gait was sure and steady, Tulip was pressed tight against his back, her arms wrapped around him and fingers drifting a little - not in any suggestive way, not that Jesse would've minded, but more like she was reminding himself he was there. He caught her hand, pressed it against his chest, over his heart, felt Tulip's lips brush his neck and her head rest on his shoulder, and thought he could do this forever.

*

After, when they were tangled up in each other under the blankets, Tulip nudged Jesse's leg. When he didn't wake up, she prodded him with a little more force.

"Mm? Ow! Stop that."

"Oh, good. You're awake."

Skeeter, who was on top of the blankets and pressed in close to their feet, grumbled and jumped off the bed again.

"Did you hear that?" said Jesse. "You disturbed the dog."

"I'm sure he was plenty disturbed already." Tulip propped herself up on an elbow and left her other arm between their two bodies. "Jesse, what are we going to do now? I mean, now that we're on the path to being law-abiding citizens."

He gave her a lazy smile that made her stomach flip-flop. He really was too pretty for his own good. "I make a pretty good horse thief, if I do say so myself. I don't know, baby. Didn't you say something about headin' off to New York?"

"Only to get away from you." She snuggled in closer, slid one leg between his knees.

"Ah." Jesse traced a light finger up her spine and gently cradled the back of her head. "You ever been to Salvation? I made a promise I think I ought to keep."

"Salvation, huh? Yeah, all right. Let's go." Tulip closed her eyes, enjoying the feel of his hands, warm on her skin. "Tomorrow. . ."

*

Cassidy slouched down low in his truck, a baseball cap pulled low, so the brim nearly touched his sunglasses. He'd been sitting in the same position for the past few hours, as he waited for Jesse and Tulip to emerge from the motel he'd tracked them to. He just needed to see with his own eyes that they were all right. Although what Cassidy would do if God hadn't kept up the other part of their bargain, he hadn't worked out yet.

He didn't see them again for another five years.

 

*

"Jesse!"

Tulip stepped out of the truck in time to see a young black woman greet Jesse in a very familiar way. Skeeter bounded over to the side of the road, relieved himself on a sparse patch of grass and sat at Jesse's feet, waiting to be acknowledged. Tulip followed him around the truck with slightly less enthusiasm.

"Forget to tell me about something?" Tulip said, not exactly jealous, but not not-jealous either. Jesse might've been a preacher, but it wasn't like he was a priest, which she well knew. And six months. . . Well, a lot could happen in six months.

"What? Oh, no." Jesse squeezed her shoulder. "Tulip, this is Cindy -- she's the sheriff 'round these parts. Cindy, this is Tulip."

Cindy's handshake was warm and brief. "Don't think Salvation was expecting anyone like him. He cleaned the town right up."

"I thought I'd try my hand at being a sheriff," he said to Tulip. "Suited my state of mind a bit more than preaching."

"I'll bet," she said, wryly.

Jesse suggested getting a drink, which Cindy said she wouldn't do on account of being on the clock, but she'd head in to Jodie's with them.

"Trouble?" asked Jesse, as the three of them started up the walkway.

Tulip hung back a little, picturing Jesse with a badge and a gun. It wasn't all that different an image from Jesse during his preacher days.

Cindy evidently was having similar thoughts. "Nothing I can't handle. You here for your old job?"

"Wouldn't dream of it." He held the door open for them.

"Good," said Cindy, ducking under his arm first.

Jesse settled his arm around Tulip's waist and they walked over to the bar. "Mom," he said, "there's someone I'd like you to meet."

*

He saw Jesse first, wearing his customary white jeans and black jacket and minus the preacher collar. Tulip and Amy walked out of the movie theatre two steps behind him, laughing about something. They were dressed for a night out on the town.

Cassidy stayed in the crowed across the street, moving away from them. He was glad they appeared to be doing well -- and were still together, not that that was ever much in question. The kind of love they had. . . The nearest he'd come to it, he figured, was Jesse reaching out his hand to him, before he burned in the sun.

Still, though, if God was alive, he had a terrible sense of humour, making it so that the three of them - and Amy - ended up on the same block in New York City, when Cassidy was sure Tulip and Jesse had left the state for years now and he wasn't even looking for them.

*

Funny thing was, a couple more years down the road, the three of them met again, in a bar of all places because that's just the way things worked with them.

"All roads lead to Salvation, eh?" said Cassidy, breaking the stare-off they had going.

"I thought you were dead." Tulip stepped forward, then stopped. She didn't look happy, exactly, to see him, but she wasn't reaching for a gun either.

Cassidy nodded. "Well, I was. And then I wasn't."

"'Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world'," she said. "Why are you here?"

"Just passin' through. I didn't know you'd be here." Which was true enough. Cassidy'd thought they wouldn't have arrived in Salvation for another few days, given the schedule of their previous years. Tulip and Jesse travelled to Salvation twice a year like clockwork, sometimes they visited more, but they always went for the Fourth of July and Christmas-and-New Year's.

"You're not wearing sunglasses," said Jesse, finally.

"Ah, no." Cassidy patted the jacket pocket in which he carried his sunglasses. "Kinda got outta the habit of wearing them indoors. Easier to see, you know." In the next pause in conversation, he gathered up his courage to say, "You two were the best things that ever happened to me. And I'm sorry I screwed it up - I cannot tell you how sorry I am for that - and that I haven't been able to tell you this in person until now." He put down a five for his soda and left.

Or would have, if Jesse hadn't reached out and stopped him as he passed by. "Cass, are you sober?"

He snuck a peek at Tulip. She was frowning a little at Jesse's hand on his shoulder, but Cassidy didn't think she was angry or upset; it was more thoughtful-like. "The drinkin' and drugs weren't working out for me," he said, feeling like he should apologize again, for all the good that did. "So, I tried something else."

"How long?"

"'Bout four years." Four years, five months and twelve days. "I'm, ah. It's good to see you guys around," he said, quietly.

"Cassidy." Tulip looked straight into his eyes, which was slightly unnerving. "I'm glad you're alive."

He dipped his head in acknowledgement and walked out of the bar and kept on walking until he got to a meeting.

*

The third time Tulip bumped into Cassidy was in a coffee shop in Austin, where she and Jesse were spending the weekend.

"It's like you're stalking me," she said, coming up to the counter.

"Yeah, 'cept your the one who walked into my place of work." He fiddled with his apron strings. "What do you want?"

"Two coffees."

"Want any frou frou stuff in it? I wouldn't recommend it." Cassidy poured coffee into two cardboard cups and slid them across the counter. "That'll be $3.78."

"Criminal," said Tulip, handing over four ones.

"Tell me about it." He dropped the change in the tip jar. "We appreciate your patronage."

Tulip paused in the doorway. "Hey, Cassidy, when are you off? Jesse and I are having dinner in town. If you wanted to join us."

Cassidy smiled so much at the customers for the remainder of his shift, his manager was convinced something was wrong with him and sent him home early.

*

Tulip leaned against the fence, watching Jesse work. It was dusk and the outdoor lamps cast a weak glow into the little round pen where horse and man were squaring off. "Hey, there, cowboy," she said.

He smiled at her. "I was just explaining to Cassidy how horse training works."

Cassidy waved to her from the tree he was sitting under; probably he'd been napping while Jesse went on explaining.

"Better him than me," she said, having heard Jesse talk about movement and energy and rewarding good behaviour more times than she could count. "I love you, babe, but I don't get the horse thing." Though, if she applied what Jesse said about horses to Cassidy. . . The way the little brown horse and Cassidy looked at Jesse right now, like he was the sun around which they orbited, it kinda made sense. Jesse led and they followed -- because they wanted to, because they loved him, because they'd been to hell and back together, even though he was sometimes infuriating and high-handed. Granted it was mostly during life-or-death situations. . .

For all of Cassidy's monumental screw ups - or because of them, rather - Tulip thought he'd understand better than anyone just how much it bothered her that Jesse'd lied and drugged her and didn't trust her to look out for herself. She didn't think on it much - she preferred to leave the past where it was - and it wasn't like they'd been in any situations to test Jesse's resolve not to override her decisions, which she was glad of, but somewhere deep down, when she decided a while back to forgive Cassidy, she knew it was partly because it would be a lot harder for Jesse to outmanoeuvre both of them. And with Jesse around, Cassidy was far less likely to fall off the wagon. They were doing all right, she thought. They'd found a balance and certain peace in their lives, and she hoped it lasted a long, long time.

"I picked up some pizza," she said, because even after all this time, none of them could cook worth a damn, "and this new vampire movie?"

Cassidy stood up, stretched and groaned. "Don't tell me. Fucking sparkles."

Jesse ducked through the fence boards and came up on the other side for a kiss. Tulip happily obliged. Then she looked at Cassidy and grinned. "Could be your Halloween costume. We'll find some glitter and glue and--"

Cassidy flipped her the bird. Between them, Jesse laughed. He slung an arm over both of them and the three of them made their way to their house.


End file.
